526 WILD ANIMALS. 



as a warning to the rest to abstain from trespassing within the 

 gorilla's territory. 



The GrOEiLLA (Troglodytes Gorilla) is the largest of all existing 

 apes. The average height of this beast is a few inches over five 

 feet, and its muscular strength is prodigious. Comparing it with 

 the proportions of a man, it is excessively broad across the 

 shoulders, the arms are of much greater length, for they reach 

 when the animal stands erect half way down the shin, while the 

 legs are relatively short. The body is covered with coarse black 

 hair, which becomes grey with age. The face is wide and elon- 

 gated, and is thrust forward so prominently that it imparts a 

 singularly hideous aspect to the animal. The skin on it is 

 nude, much wrinkled, and of a deep lead colour. The greenish 

 eyes are small but bright, and the nose, which is a somewhat 

 prominent one, is broad and flat, slightly elevated towards the 

 root. The mouth is astonishingly large and brutish-looking, in 

 consequence of the lips being thick, projecting, and so highly 

 mobile that when the animal is enraged they are elongated until 

 the brute's face looks more than half mouth. The chin is receding. 

 The face is destitute of eyebrows, but the eyes have well-developed 

 eyelashes. The ears are small. Both sexes of the animal are well 

 furnished with teeth, those of the males being especially noticeable, 

 owing to the huge size of the canine ones. The hands are broad 

 and thick, long in the palm, and have the appearance of being 

 semi-webbed, for the fingers are not separated so far down as in 

 a man. This peculiarity is still more conspicuous in the foot. 

 The neck is remarkably short, so much so that in a front view of 

 the animal it seems altogether absent, for the chin appears to rest 

 on or be sunk into the upper part of the huge and capacious chest. 



The indescribably ferocious aspect of these apes is due chiefly 

 to the hairy ridge or crest of long hah* on the top of the scalp 

 which runs from ear to ear, and is the most remarkable feature of 

 the head. The animal, having the power of moving the scalp freely, 

 when enraged contracts it strongly over the brow, which brings 

 down this hairy ridge and produces the singularly fierce appearance 

 for which this ape is noted. 



In reality the whole aspect of the gorilla is at all times a repul- 



